Structures That Interrupt Chronology
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Flashback/ˈflæʃbæk/ | Flashback |
| foreshadowing/fɔːˈʃædəʊɪŋ/ | Details or hints that prepare the reader for events that occur later in a story. |
| In medias res/ɪn ˈmiːdiːəz rez/ | In medias res |
| stream of consciousness/striːm ɒv ˈkɒnʃəsnəs/ | stream of consciousness |
Four named structures
- Some narrative structures interrupt the chronology of a plot; such structures include flashback, foreshadowing, in medias res and stream of consciousness.
- Flashback 倒叙 goes back; foreshadowing 伏笔 reaches forward.
- In medias res 从中间开始 starts in the middle; stream of consciousness 意识流 follows a mind rather than a clock.
A flashback sends the story backward without asking the calendar for permission.
Select all the structures the CED names as interrupting chronology.
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Stream of consciousness completes the four; dialogue does not interrupt chronology.
Flashback and foreshadowing are opposites in direction
- A flashback delivers information the reader did not have; a foreshadow withholds information the reader now expects.
- One fills a gap, the other opens one.
- So they do opposite things to the reader even though both break chronology.
Answer in the third column: what a reader knows, and when
Which structure is this?
Sort each device by how it interrupts chronology.
Flashback and foreshadowing differ in that flashback...
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One fills a gap; the other opens one.
In medias res puts you behind
- Beginning in the middle means the reader arrives without the context every character already has.
- That deficit is a structure, not an accident: the reader spends the early chapters catching up.
- Whatever is withheld longest is usually what the novel is actually about.
Beginning in medias res means the reader arrives without the ____ every character already has.
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Whatever is withheld longest is usually what the novel is about.
Flashback and foreshadowing break chronology in opposite directions. A flashback gives the reader information they lacked; foreshadowing withholds information the reader now expects. Treating both as "the author moves in time" loses the only thing that distinguishes their effects.
Stream of consciousness reorders events into a new sequence.
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It abandons event-order altogether for the order of a mind.
Stream of consciousness replaces the clock
- Stream of consciousness does not reorder events — it abandons event-order altogether for the order of a mind.
- A memory, a smell and a plan can sit in one sentence because that is how thinking works.
- So it interrupts chronology by substituting a different principle, not by jumping.
Put the chronology pass in order.
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This subtopic asks only that you find them; the next asks what they do.
A chronology pass
- Sketch the events in the order they happened. Then in the order the text gives them.
- Mark every place the two differ, and name which of the four structures is at work.
- The next subtopic asks what each interruption does — this one asks only that you find them.
A novel opens with a funeral (in medias res), then reaches back three years (flashback), and in chapter two mentions a locked room that will not be opened until the last page (foreshadowing). Three structures, three different deficits in what the reader knows.
Flashback, foreshadowing, in medias res and stream of consciousness interrupt chronology. Flashback gives withheld information; foreshadowing withholds expected information; in medias res starts the reader behind; stream of consciousness replaces clock-order with mind-order.